When ads in ChatGPT started leaking into the public, marketers reacted like they usually react to big LLM news that could change the advertising landscape: they wrung their hands and panicked about what it might mean for their careers and businesses.
I’ll admit to doing the same thing at first; the ChatGPT ads experience is going to be markedly different than anything we’ve become accustomed to in the paid search world. Context is different; controls will be different; ChatGPT ad inventory might be (if early indicators are any proof) much more expensive than current alternatives.
Upon a little further reflection, though, the idea that ChatGPT ads will likely shake up the current search advertising landscape might not be all bad— especially for agencies who make their money based on elite expertise that drives differentiated performance and growth for their clients.
Why ChatGPT Could Threaten Google’s Dominance
The reason? ChatGPT could emerge as a long-overdue threat to Google’s search dominance, which would finally give Google motivation to stop acting like it holds all the cards and be a better partner to advertisers.
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Before I dive into that, a little history: when I started in digital marketing over 15 years ago, Google had a great search product. Advertisers who knew how to work the levers in advanced ways could quickly prove their worth with best-in-class results, and beyond that, Google reps were actually reliable sources of valuable information and partnership.
How AI Can Reshape Competition
Today, as competitors like Yahoo and Bing have long since faded, Google has deservedly lost the reputation as a good business partner. Among multiple lawsuits filed in recent years against Google, the U.S. vs. Google antitrust trial laid out, in incredibly clear detail, the practices Google spent years employing to its shareholders’ benefit and to the detriment of search advertisers. And once-helpful Google reps are now little more than glorified salespeople indiscriminately pushing new AI-driven products that will increase spend with no guarantee of improving results.
Now: ChatGPT looms as a potential threat to Google’s dominance. While its share of overall global search activity is still relatively small, it’s growing at a remarkable rate. It’s already changing user behavior from one query and a click to a series of increasingly nuanced, zero-click prompts in the same interface— whether that’s happening in ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode, Claude, Perplexity, or another LLM.
Whether or not ChatGPT can become not just a search rival but an advertising rival to Google, which would apply the competitive pressure I’m hoping to see, remains to be seen.
Making the Case for ChatGPT
Google has a very big head start on the monetization engine, after all. Whatever users come to a Google property— including an AI-driven property— Google will squeeze every last dollar of revenue out of the engagement. And while Google leaders are keeping certain AI products ad-free for now, you can bet that once the output has been rigorously tested and determined to carry more potential reward than risk, users will start seeing ads.
That said, ChatGPT has already built a base of users and has a ton of resources to keep developing its products and tools. If the user base continues to grow, and partnerships like those they’ve established with adtech companies like The Trade Desk and Criteo start bearing fruit, they’ll be a bigger competitor to Google than anyone has been for the past decade.
Even if ChatGPT’s baby steps toward agentic shopping fell flat, there are giant potential revenue streams waiting to be tapped. First, it’s already a huge conduit for product discovery, and savvy advertisers who understand the power of the relatively under-valued upper funnel will be willing to pay for that real estate. Second, the integration of partner retail apps (like Walmart’s) within the ChatGPT interface is a revenue stream on its own— one that gets richer as the user base grows.
Wrapping Up
Most performance marketing agency leaders I know and respect have had a collective bone to pick with Google for a while. Now is not the time to let up on feedback about tools and functionalities we need to drive better results for our clients. If ChatGPT can continue to grow its base of users and work in the background to create viable monetization products that present genuinely high-ROAS opportunities for advertisers, Google will have a lot more incentive to pay attention.
Tyler Jordan, CEO of Jordan Digital Marketing, founded the agency in July 2017 after extensive stints working on both sides of the agency-client relationship. His radically transparent approach has resulted in consistently high retention rates for clients and colleagues alike, and his digital marketing acumen and fierce commitment to business partnership has helped clients achieve goals including funding, acquisition, and unicorn status. Tyler lives in San Francisco and loves the Giants, 49ers, Warriors, and Sharks (in that order), but his empathetic approach to team-building led him to establish JDM as a remote company at its inception. When he’s not building careers or helping clients achieve their goals, Tyler enjoys spending time with his wife, daughters Lily and Camia, and rambunctious doodle.
